a gentle hand
by meganoodledoodle
Summary: a random oneshot between Sweeney and Mrs Lovett happened some time after Little Priest


A Gentle Hand

Disclaimer: **I do not own **Sweeney Todd or any of the characters , I'm just playing with them for a while, I'll put them back in their box when I'm finished

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A long piercing scream echoed through the dark alleys of Fleet Street.

Sweeney Todd the demon barber stood by the window watching intently, his thoughts as usual were on the judge. He turned the razor in his hand, staring down at the sleek silver blade; nine throats had been slashed today. Nine souls had gone to feed his ever hungry rage; the razor looked even more beautiful with the rubies dripping down it

"Soon my friend, soon and the judge will be ours" he whispered and jumped as another scream sounded, this time it came from Mrs. Lovett's pie shop. Sweeney sighed, the woman was insufferable with her limitless amount of energy and her annoying habit of knowing exactly what was bothering him.

He almost killed her last week in a fit of rage; she did deserve it didn't she? Sneaking into his head and worming out his feelings.

Sweeney Todd didn't have feelings, he hadn't since the first time…_ he had been thrown back into his cell, his back sore and bleeding from the whip; since he had howled his despair and sorrow to the moon, his cry like so many others doomed to die in the cold unforgiving cells_… he shook his head and went down the stairs, he could at least find out what was making her cause such a racket.

Mrs Lovett had been having a bad day, Toby was ill so it meant double work for her as well as chopping up all nine people Mr Todd had the decency to kill today. She leaned on the counter and sighed "there's no rest for the wicked" she cast a critical eye around the shop, it was spotless as normal but she liked to make sure. Working made her feel better about herself now the business was successful; she liked to feel that she was needed for something, even if it was only to fill hungry stomachs.

Work also took her mind off her neighbour, she sighed again. Although he seemed to be coping well there was always that strange sense she got around him that he was slowly dying inside. She did her best to ease that burden by whenever he was downstairs asked he to do little jobs like to go down to the market for a herb of some kind, or to help Toby with his reading. But he was still seemed dying; Mrs Lovett dreaded to think of what would happen if he actually did get ill. "Poor thing" she muttered and went down to the bake house, there was a lot of work to be done.

Thud… her knife sank into the man's leg with a sickening thud. _Yuck that's the only thing I hate about that bloody barber! Why does he have to kill so many people_! But she remembered his so called 'epiphany' and how he'd collapsed after nearly killing her; she had forced him to stay in bed for a few days after they had come up with the great idea of chopping up the people he killed. "Well, we can't all deserve to die. I know I don't, but that bloody judge certainly does!" she looked down with interest to see who she was chopping up and screamed, her knife fell from her hand as she screamed and screamed

Sweeney burst into the bake house to see Mrs Lovett on the floor whimpering, he went over to her and knelt down to look her in the eye, she was even paler than normal, the dark circles under her eyes were more prominent than normal: and she was shaking like a leaf.

"Nellie what's wrong?" he was surprised by both his gentle tone and the fact that he had used her first name. He was even more surprised when her hand flew out of nowhere and hit him across the face, he fell backwards into a pool of blood from the partly cut up corpse "for gods sake what the hell is wrong with you!" he yelled.

She stood up trembling

"You bloody idiot!" her hand flew out and she slapped him again

"I knew you was crazy, but this is just stupid, you bloody barber!" she grabbed his collar and dragged him over to the corpse

"You just killed my uncle Stan!" she screamed

"Oh…."

"Is that all you can bloody say? Oh! Everyone knew Stan, he was the local florist. Now you've got us into one hell of a mess!"

She sank back to floor weeping uncontrollably, Sweeney felt a stab of guilt, he had killed her uncle. One of the only relatives she had left and he had killed him. Did he destroy everything good? Did that make him as bad as the judge? _No no no no NO! _He fell to his knees

"Not like the judge, not like the judge, not like the judge!" he muttered rocking back and forth then he felt a gentle hand on his cheek

"You're not like the judge love and you never will be" he looked up into the baker's shinning eyes and felt a glimmer of hope,

"I'm sorry Nellie. I am so sorry" Mrs Lovett looked shocked then her face broke into a radiant smile

"That's alright love" She pulled him into a hug

And for once, just once, he didn't pull away. Mrs Lovett's heart leapt at the feeling "come on love, I'll make you something nice eh?" he nodded and as they walked up the stairs she slipped her hand into his and he turned and smiled down at her

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